2 Kings 2-7

There is a Prophet in Israel" 

Transcript

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Hi, folks. Welcome back to another episode of the Receivers Podcast. This week we're talking about 2 Kings. Two through eight. And we're going to get into some really good stuff here. Oh, sorry, it's only two through seven. Don't get ahead of myself. And what we get here is mostly, uh, now we're going to get the story of Elisha. So last week we talked about the prophet Elijah. This one we get Elisha. Now this one would be salvation or my goddess, right? My God is Yeshua. My God is Joshua, my God of salvation. My God is Jesus, if you will. And so that's what we get for Elisha. So, and I think this is an important thing to point out is that a lot of times in these scriptures, they're going to refer to a prophet, the groups of prophets, right? That meet up with Elisha or men of God. And these um, these are different. There were what there were disciples, there were men of God, there were seers, and then there were prophets. And we don't know fully, um, scholarship is still trying to figure out what exactly each of these roles and titles meant. But a prophet in particular would speak on behalf of the Lord, would perform miracles, would help within the process. And we know now from modern revelation that Elijah was a prophet who held keys. Now that's what makes Elijah what we would say now as quote-unquote the prophet. But even now, we sustain the 12 apostles, we sustain even the general authorities, right? Uh well, sorry, we we sustain just the 12 apostles as prophets, years and over leaders. Meaning we believe also in more than one prophet, right? But we only have one president of the church and we only have one priesthood, the leader who holds all of the keys, right? And that right now is President Dallan H. Oakes. But we have a lot of men who are considered prophets, right? Who can see into the future, who are close to God, who um can warn, who can speak on behalf of the Lord. And so there were still, there were many during this time. But Elijah was a prominent one who held priesthood keys, as we now know, thanks to modern revelation. And Elisha is his predecessor, and we can see this story in chapter two of 2 Kings of the transition of this, um of these priesthood keys symbolized by this mantle. But let's before we get into that, let's just go over what again, what first and second kings are. These are still a part of the greater history that we've been reading about from 1st and 2nd Samuel. Um, it's a story about the splitting up of the kingdoms, right? We have the northern kingdom of Israel that Jeroboam set up, and now we have continued there, right? That's all of the other kingdoms besides Judah and Benjamin, and then we have the kingdom of Judah, which is in the southern part, southern, southern, southwest part of the area, and we have those kings. And right now, a lot of these stories are gonna be taking place with the king of Israel. We get some with the king of Judah, but right now mostly with the king of Israel, and Elijah and Elisha will have interactions with them. Um, and we're gonna learn some political stuff. We actually won't get into a lot of different changes in kingdoms because right now what we're going to have set up is the um Omri is going to have become king in these, and then he is um going to have his his his um gosh his posterity will have um the kingdom for a little bit until next week. And so we have a political dynasty happening in Israel, and we have one in Judah um with this king of David. But actually, we will have moments where they will actually still, because they're still together, they are two different entities, but again, they're right next to each other, they still need to have alliances, and so actually the son of one of the kings of Israel will be the king of Judah. If I'm not mistaken, it could be vice versa, but it's one of the two. One of the sons, one of the daughters marries the son, and then so one of the sons, there's a familial connection there between the kingdom of Israel and the kingdom of Judah. And so they're still connected, they're not completely separate. Okay, I just re-looked it up, and what it is is that he's the son-in-law. So King Jehoram of Judah married Athalia, who was the daughter of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel, who we talked about last week. And so there's still these connections, right? And that can be both a good thing and a bad thing. A good thing because it helps them politically, a bad thing because sometimes that might mean that the religion of the queen or the uh or of Israel, right, as we saw with Jezebel, right? Her she really was pushing for her own um Phoenician hometown, gods be worshipped, and Ahab fell into that. And so maybe that might happen with Atala, well, Atalia, we don't know, but that's what's happening. And um Ahab dies, and we get a new king, and that is going to be gosh, who comes after? I can't remember. One shouldn't Ahaziah. Wow, it's very close, right? We have Ataleah, Ataziah rules over Israel afterwards. Um and so this is what's happening. And then, but in the middle of this, you know, turmoil, we have Elijah dying. And what he does is he tells Elijah in chapter two, we're gonna go, I'm going down, right? I'm I'm going down to Bethel, and he's like, I'm gonna come with you. And he's like, you know, do you know that I'm going to die? The the company people know that Elijah, Elijah's getting old. And it seems like a group of prophets, maybe also followers of Elijah, come up, and in verse 3 they say, Do you know that today the Lord will take away your master from you? Like, do you know that your master's gonna die today? And he's like, Yep, I know, but I'm still gonna follow him. Elijah says that. Elisha says that. And Elijah says, Okay, the Lord's sending me to Jordan. And Elijah keeps going with him, right? He keeps continually goes with him. You know, as the Lord lives and as the Lord live, I will not leave you. I know you're going, but I'm still I'm by your side. I'm your companion, you're my teacher. You've become a father figure to me. In ancient time, you would refer to a person who was your leader or advisor, had took a fatherly role as father, right? Because he's acting as a father to you. And if you remember, the Hebrew language is based in verbs. And so if someone was being a father, they were your father. Doesn't necessarily have to be biological, but just being the act of a father makes them, right, a father in that way. And so when they they get to the Jordan and Elijah performs a miracle that Joshua had done and that Moses had done, in which he takes the mantle off of his clothes, his mantle, right? Think Joseph Joseph, right, of Egypt. His mantle represents power, maybe his priesthood power, maybe it it showed that he was a prophet, right? To people who were seeing him, they would be like, Oh, how do I know? You know, all old men look the same. And, you know, he's like, No, he has a special robe on, right? So he takes this mantle and he slaps the water with it and it it um splits, right? And he walks across with Elisha. And I'm just reminded here that the crossing of the Jordan, right, this points to Elijah as a Moses figure, as a Joshua figure, right? He is just like them in that he can perform these miracles. The Lord is with him as he was with those men, but it also points forward to Jesus Christ. And what do I see here as I've thought about this, right? I think I mentioned it before, right? But the Christ himself splits the Jordan when he's baptized with his own body. Um, and in the Jordan River, we get this transfer of power. We get, number one, Moses going to Joshua, right? Joshua is now the new Moses. We get Elijah to Elisha. Elisha is the new Elijah. We get this transfer of power at the Jordan. We get the same thing with John the Baptist and Jesus. John the Baptist says, hey, you know what? It's not me anymore. It's Christ. He's the one that I've been preaching about, right? This transfer of power, of focus at the Jordan River. And we get the same thing, not at the Jordan, but when John the Baptist comes and appears to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdry at the Susquehanna River, and they get this transfer of power, right? And so a lot of things happening symbolically at rivers. And I thought about this because I thought, okay, why? Why are they all happening at the same spot? Obviously, to connect all of them together, I think. Um, and also I think to to speak to the people. People would know, okay, if something, you know, there's a transfer of power at the Jordan. And so I think the ancient people would have would have maybe known this. They would have been like, okay, well, you know, um, transfers of powers tend to happen at the Jordan. Oh, interesting. Uh prophet that we know is a prophet, right? John the Baptist, transfers his power essentially to Jesus Christ, to Jesus of Nazareth, maybe we should follow him. It would have spoken to them. And we'll see that throughout that a lot of Elisha's miracles were Jesus' miracles. So not only would the people have seen him as a new Moses, if you will, they would have seen him maybe as a new Elijah, as a new Elisha. And they, again, also they would have been like, okay, these are the things that a prophet does. When a prophet and a man of the Lord comes, he does things of the Jordan. He performs these certain types of miracles, and that would have spoken to them in their language. And the Lord speaks to each of us in our language, in the way that we understand. And these would have been the ways that the people would have recognized a prophet. We do the same things, right? We say, okay, a prophet would speak of God. He would do serviceable acts, these types of things. We have our own language that we would say, okay, a good person, a good Christian, does these types of things, right? And so each person, the Lord speaks to us in our own language. And I think we can see this here. Another thing that I wanted to say is that as I was thinking about the difference between, okay, it happening at the Jordan and it happening with the Susquehanna River with Joseph Smith, I thought about this, which is I thought about when I went to Jordan and I had the opportunity to be at the uh at the Jordan River um, you know, site where where Christ got baptized at the Jordan River, and I'm sitting there, and I'm like, okay, I was expecting to have a really big spiritual moment, and I I felt the spirit. Um, but I was like, huh, this is, you know, what a great place that this happened here. Like I can, you know, I can feel the spirit. And the Lord said, and I I felt the spirit, you know, testify to me, like, yes, this was an important place. But it's the same spirit that you felt, but it's just as an important place as your baptism, as your Baptist site all the way back in in Utah, you know, at the Stake Center in Logan, Utah, is just as sacred and just as important. And I thought about that because I saw many wonderful pilgrims who had come from all around the world to be baptized in the Jordan River, like Jesus Christ. And that is wonderful and beautiful and such a testimony of their faith. But I thought about how I didn't have to travel far. I didn't have to travel to Jordan in order to feel the same spirit that I felt there as I felt for my own baptism. And I just thought that that is the miracle and that's the message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and of Jesus Christ in general, is that it doesn't matter where you are. Yes, certain things can have certain symbolic symbolic representation or meaning, and they can speak to us and they can be special places. But the point of the restoration is that any place can be made holy if the spirit is there. It doesn't have to be in the holy land, doesn't have to be where the Nephites were. It can be anywhere that the Spirit is. And so that's just what I thought of as I was reading these chapters today. But let's continue on. So when they've crossed, Elijah, this is verse 9, says to Elisha, Tell me what I may do for you before I'm taken from you. And Elisha says, Please let me inherit a double share of your spirit. What he's asking for is essentially, if you remember, we talked about the uh the firstborn inheritance, right? The birthright blessing. He's asking for that, but not of physical land, but of the spirit. And Elijah responds and says, You've asked me a hard thing, like yet if you see me as I've been taken from you. I think Elijah's saying, I don't really know if that's me, that's mine to grant, right? Like that kind of seems like it's from the Lord, but sure, like, hey, you know what? This will be a sign unto you, like if the Lord's given it to you. If you can see me when I go, then you'll know that you will do it. And so as they talked, a chariot of fire and of horses of fire separated the two of them, and Elijah ascended into a whirlwind into heaven. I have seen the land where Elisha Elijah went up into heaven. Um, and it's just it's a flat land. But I did, I I felt the spirit as I was there, just thinking about this man and the life that he did and um and the fact that he did go up into heaven. And Elisha says, Father, father. Like he saw it, so he's like, Oh, Father, look, I can see the chariot of Israel and its horses, like I can see it. But, and that was a testament to Elisha that the Lord was going to be with him, just like he was with Elijah, and that he had inherited this double portion of the spirit. Now, what does this mean? This is shown in the text by the fact that Elijah performs seven miracles. Elisha performs 14 miracles. So, according to the text, he literally did inherit a double portion of his spirit. Now, is this this is a literary device, most likely, but it still points to the fact that the Lord was with Elisha and gave what he wanted, and he was with him, and he was able to be just as helpful to the people as Elijah was. And so Elisha is now the new, he succeeds Elisha, right? Um, and he performs these miracles. And I don't know how to deal with all of them, right? Like the classic uh him being called bald head by some of these uh young men, right? And he cursed them in the name of the Lord, and then two she bears come in and maul them. I don't know what to do with that fully. I mean, they're technically mocking, right? The man of the Lord, um, and that's not a good thing to do. And it could be a warning against mocking, you know, the prophet of the Lord. Um, but again, I don't know everything about what that might mean. But I do know that he was called of the Lord. And I want to go back into what um the Come Coll Me says for the questions, where it says, like, um, it's unknown why they harassed Eliza or why why them calling him bald was like so offensive, but we do know that their actions were serious and deeply offensive, and that it might have been a warning to Israel that the judgments of God would come upon them if they continued to reject their prophets. And so there is a reason for the story. It might be harsh, and we might not fully understand everything, but maybe there's a lesson from these hard stories that we can take. So then we get Jehoram. And so Jehosaphat is ruling Judah, and Jehoram, the son of Ahab, is now the king. Okay, and he reigned 12 years and did evil, right? Um, but he did not do like his father and mother. Um, meaning he did not worship Baal, but he did follow the sin of Jeroboam. What does that mean? It means that while he did not worship Baal, he still worshipped not at the temple, he still worshiped the golden calves, he still worshiped Yahweh or um Adonai or Jehovah in a way that was not sanctioned by the Lord. So that's what this lesson is. Then we get the story of war with Moab. Now, this for me is personally enriching, and I love it because I've I've had the opportunity to go to Ateruz or Aterot, which is mentioned as a place that the children of Gad were in, but it's also a place of high contention between the Moabites and Israel, not Judah, Israel. It's right on the it's right near the Dead Sea, um, and it would have been right on the border between Moab and the Israelites. And there is a record that the the Gadites were there, the people of Israel were there for a long time, for forever, is basically what um this huge stella or this huge uh piece of rock that's been found and it's been written on it, and it says that. And then it also has the account, it's called the Moabite, it's called the Mesha Stella because Mesha, who's mentioned here, the king of Moab, who was a sheepherder, okay, sheepherder, who was would give to Israel all these things, right? They're right on the border, they're a smaller kingdom, so they would have given, and then they rebelled. And again, how many times they were rebelling? Probably a lot. Um, the Meshist tells the story that they actually conquered Ataruz, and we can see that in the archaeological evidence that it was once um an Israelite-ish site, seemingly, and then it got changed to be a Moabite site. So we can see that here. Um, but that the Israelites were were still able to overcome Moab. You know, it's hard to know exactly what the outcome of each battle was. Um, and obviously each historical record is going to say that they won. Um, but it's just fun to be like, okay, yeah, Meshah mentioned in the Bible, that is found on a um an archaeological stone that he himself is said to write. Um, and it mentions um the people of Omri, the Amrites and the Gadites. And so um people have been been said to say that that is Israel. That is the the Israelites, okay, who were living at this place, and then maybe during this rebellion or a subsequent, subsequent one, um, ultimately Atarus was taken away, and the Gadites did not live there anymore. But we can see this mixture there of the worship of bulls, huge bull symbolism there, um, which maybe points back right to Jehoran, which points back to this worship of Yahweh, but maybe not in the fully sanctionized way. It's interesting because you could have probably seen from there where there was a temple, a border shrine of the Israelites. There was a temple there. And you maybe could have seen from there the temple of Jerusalem. You can see Jerusalem from that site. You can see the the the dome um of the dome of the rock or the the Muslim um mosque that is there right now. Anyway, so these are just fun. Anyway, so basically Judah and Israel, when Moab, uh Moab rebels, when Meshah rebels, they're like, okay, we have to go together. Why? It's right next to both of them. It's right next to Judah, it's on the border of Israel. So they team up together. And what they do is they actually go to the south and they go around and they're coming up to Moab from that way. And they go to uh Elisha and they're like, Yes, everything is good, right? Like, but they go up to Elisha and they're like, we need to ask him what to do. And Elisha's kind of sassy. He's like, Oh, so now that you need help, you're coming to me, why don't you go to the prophets of Baal or the prophets of Asherah, right? Of your mothers, your fathers, or your mothers. And he says, No, it is the Lord, right? It's Yahweh. It's not Baal, it's not Asherah, but but Yahweh. We're we're united under Jehovah. That these three who's coming the these three kings, so Edom, which was south of Moab, and Judah and Israel are all together to fight against Moab, fight against Meshah. And so they're all gathered under the name of Jehovah. And so they say, No, you're the prophet of Jehovah. And he says, As the Lord lives, Lord of hosts, Jehovah of the armies, right, whom I serve, were it not that I had great regard for Jehoshaphat of Judah, I would give you neither a look or a glance, but get me a musician. So he's saying, you know what? Because of the faithfulness of Jehoshaphat, right? Or the fact that I regard him. Yes, sure. And so the it's interesting because Elisha asks for a musician, maybe to help him get feel the spirit, right? I know that that music and hymns help me feel the spirit. And so he asks for that and he gets it. And he he says, okay, so what's gonna happen is it's going to rain. The the that Jehovah's going to make it rain. And but the wadi, so the dry riverbed or the dry bed is going to be filled. You can drink it. Um and you should you're gonna you're gonna conquer it, right? And so that's what happens is water is filled. And as the water is filled, when the sun is rising, the Moabites come in and they see the water, but the way that the sun hits the water is it looks red and they think it's blood. They think that these three kingdoms have all rebelled against each other, and so they get out of there. They don't actually get anything, they they run away. And he actually, um, you know, Mesha is said to have killed his firstborn son in order to worship um to win this attack, right? This surprise attack that they got because they thought everybody was gone. But um, it's hard to know if that's actually true or not, because uh there's a lot of reports that other people were killing children or killing their firstborn son. It's it was a practice in the ancient times, but it's hard to know how prominent it was. Anyway, that's just the story. And this is fun for me because I will say, as somebody who's been to the site where Israelites and Moabites were said to have fought. Again, I don't know if it's this particular story, but it's around this exact same time because it is when Mesha was there, right? When the sun, and uh when we would go to this dig, it would be early in the morning. We would get there before the sunrises, and so we would see the sunrise, like 6 a.m. And man, that sun looks red. And I had just read this chapter, and I was like, that makes complete sense. Like, yeah, I could totally see that if it hit the water just right, like it could totally look like blood. And it was just so cool for me to like have that experience of being like, yeah, this biblical account is probably true because it just makes, yeah, that's it. That totally makes sense. Yep. And so anyway, that's just a fun fact that I thought I would share. But again, this is how the Lord is performing miracles as they rely on him and his prophet. We get the same story with Elisha and the widow's oil. So a widow was basically going to go into slavery because she didn't have any money. So then she asks Elisha, and by the way, she's the wife of a member of the company of the prophets who have been, one of the prophets have died, right? Um, and she says, Can you please help me? And he says, Yes. So I'm feel fill your um vessels with oil. And she the water, the oil seemingly never ran out as she kept pouring it and pouring it and pouring. She kept pouring out, right? There's an element, right, of Hannah. We talked about of her pouring out, of Mary, um, who is traditionally said to have been going to a well as she was um told that she was going to be the mother of Jesus. There's this idea of women and wells and pouring out and crying out, and the Lord seeing them. And that's what's happening here. The Lord, through Elisha, is blessing this woman as she's continually pouring out. And she runs out of vessels and she sells them and she's able to save her and her family. The Lord cares about the individual just as much as he cares about the big nations, right? He cares about the individual. He will perform miracles for us, both financial and spiritual, as we trust in him. It might not be, right? I mean, he didn't save her husband from passing away, sadly, right? Couldn't he have done that? Maybe. But what he did do was help her in the situation that she was in. And he can do that for each and every one of us. And then another wealthy woman, another woman is there as um he is dead. And uh this is uh this is calling Elisha back to Elijah. If we remember, Elijah um raised the um woman's son last week, and Elisha does the same thing in which he lays on this woman's child, breathes the breath back into him, and he he arises. And just some quick notes on this story is that um as she's going, she has had this experience. She wants to speak one-on-one with the prophet, and she's able to do so. But people are like, Why are you gonna go speak to the prophet? It's not a special day, it's not the Sabbath, it's not the moons. Those are days when, you know, would be a traditional uh worship time or festival. And she's like, No, I need to go talk to him now because my son is in danger, and uh, I know that he can do this. The faith of these mothers, the faith of the widow to ask for help for her family, the face of the faith of this mother to help with the raising of her son, the Lord wants us to ask, and he wants us to act. And sometimes the act that we do in order to produce miracles is asking. Sometimes it requires a little bit more of us. Sometimes we have to travel, right? Metaphorically, far ways to get it, but we can get it as we pray. And it might not come in the way that we want, it may come in the way that the Lord wants, but he can perform these miracles. Again, this does tie back to both of these miracles. I see Christ, you know, turning water to wine in these vessels, right? Or I see Christ raising um the child from the dead. Both of these stories are highlighted in Christ. He is shown to be a prophet, just like the ancient people. But not only is he, but they are doing it because of him, right? All of these are pointing back to Jesus Christ, and he pointed back to them. It's a circle. Elisha purifies this pot of stew, he feeds a hundred men, very interesting, right? Christ feeding the five hundred. And then we get in chapter five the healing of Naaman. This is interesting because this is a man who was not Israelite. He is from Aram, he's Aramaean, he is a um an army man, and he has leprosy, which in the ancient world was seen as um, you know, it was bad because it it's a disease, um, it's seen as impure, right? And so he wants to be healed. And what happens is that probably in the many, you know, um battles that have been happening, a um children of a captive girl from Israel bears her testimony of Jehovah. She's in a foreign land and she's been captured. And yet this young girl is shown to have enough faith to bear her testimony of the fact that Naaman can be healed from this. And I just want to highlight, again, just like we did with with the woman of with the sh, what is her, uh, the the Shunamite, the Shunammite's woman's and the widow's faith, this young woman's faith to bear her testimony. She said, If my Lord were with the prophet who was in Samaria, he could cure him of his skin disease. If you, if you knew Elisha, like he could help you. I've seen it, right? So he says, Great, I'm going to Israel. And so he he goes and he goes to the king first, because he's like, Oh, the king of Israel, right? He'll lead me to the prophet. And the king of Israel's like, I can't help you. What are you? Now the you know, the Aramite, the Aramaean king's gonna kill me. And he's like, No, I promise, like, just take me. So he goes, he takes him to Elisha. So Elisha heard that the king of Israel torn his clothes, he sent a message to the king. Why have you torn your clothes? Like, don't worry, let him come to me. He will learn that there is a prophet in Israel, that there is a man of God in Israel. And so Naaman comes and he says, What should I do? And he says, Go wash in the Jordan. Again, Jordan, healing, love it. The waters of Jordan, seven times. So he's like, and by the way, Jordan River, I don't know how it was back then. Right now, not that not that clean. Okay. Nowadays, not that clean. It's a pretty brown. So, um, also it's like, oh, I'm gonna get clean from that gross water? Right. Okay. And but Naaman was angry as this. I thought that he would surely come out and stand out and call in the name of the Lord and would wave his hand over the spot and cure the skin disease. Now, how many times has this happened in our lives when it comes to miracles? Where you're like, okay, wait. Um, I thought that the Lord was gonna perform, like, I have faith that the Lord could perform this in a miraculous way, and he didn't. And it's like, right, no. Um, the Lord didn't do that. He's he's asking you to have faith for you to put forth action. And so, right, in in the come follow me, as I'm humble and obedient, Jesus Christ can heal me. So maybe it won't happen in the way that we expect, but miracles can happen as we are humble and obedient, as Naaman was after the reminder of his servant when he says, Hey, if he would have asked you to do some great thing, wouldn't you have done it? Won't you do this simple thing? And sometimes the Lord's prophets do ask us to do the small and simple things, right? That bring things are are brought, great things are brought to pass. And so that's what ultimately happens. And Naaman says, This is amazing, I want to give you so much. And Elisha says, No, I don't need anything, right? Because he's also humble and obedient. And Naaman actually takes a little bit of land and he says, I need to take this land, because again, ancient people thought gods were tied to land. And he's like, I need to bring a little bit of this land so that I can worship Jehovah forever. And so Naaman is transformed in that way. Not only is he healed, but he believes now in Jehovah. The Lord is not only the Lord of the Israelites, but he is the Lord of the whole world. And then in chapter six, we get the story of an Aramaean attack. Okay, so see, there's still fights between the Aramaeans, which are a people who are in modern-day Syria who would have been fighting um the people. And they're coming and they're gonna attack. And Elisha's servant is like, I'm scared. And he says, right? Um attendant of the man of the Lord. He doesn't give his name, and he says, Alas, Master, what shall we do? And he replied, meaning Elisha, do not be afraid, for more there are more with us than are with them. Then Elisha prayed, O Lord, please open my eyes that you may see. So the Lord opened his eyes with the servant, and he saw, and the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around them. The the spiritual hosts were protecting them. There are angels that the Lord sends both from this side of the veil and from the other side of the veil to protect us. And truly on my mission, I felt this. I, when I was depressed and I needed help, I was alone a lot of times, just me and my companion in a city with maybe another set of elders, but that was really it. And um I was in very, very dire streets. But I remember particularly one day, as I just was looking back throughout the day, I was like, I don't know how I can do this because I was having a lot of mental health issues, and I just would pray for help. And I truly felt, and I felt the spirit confirmed to me that I was being helped by my ancestors from the other side, by angels, that they were carrying me up, that they were literally pushing me in some ways and helping me to continue forward as I needed that help. And I also thank my companions and um the elders for helping me in all of those ways because they truly did give me the emotional support to help going. And I felt like it was also from the other side that truly there are more people who are with us and rooting for us and our eternal salvation than there are people who are who are maybe against us right now. And we have to remember that's for everybody in the world, that there are people who want to help them on the other side. There's there are people who whose ancestors might be reaching out to them, and we can help them get closer to their ancestors, that the spirit of Elijah, right, of the sealing power can be there as we are angels in in our own lives, right? Um and that we can have eyes to see that, right? Michelle Craig's, Sister Michelle Craig's talk about having eyes to see maybe the things that we can't normally see, that we can have that spiritual perspective of seeing things that the Lord would have us see, so that we're not struck blind, right? Like the Aramaeans, but that our eyes are opened to the ways that the Lord is working in our own lives. Finally, um, my last thing that I would say, um, because I just forgot to go over it, would be the mantle. Going back to Elijah and Elisha. The mantle that um what happens is that the mantle of Elijah falls upon Elisha. And this is symbolic of that priesthood power passing from one to another. I say this because I went to Dallin H. Oaks's talk that he gave at Brigham Young University BYU this past spring, and he said that he felt, as he became prophet, this mantle, this prophetic mantle, right? This this power, as it's referred to, this responsibility fall on him. And he said, It is great. It is greater than than you think. It has a lot of responsibility and it weighs heavy on me, but as you pray for me, I know that I can receive help. And it is heavy. And Elisha knew that it was heavy, and that's why he asked for the Lord's help. And callings can sometimes be heavy, but as we pray and as we trust in the Lord, he can help us as we're doing his work. And in that moment, I also felt that I know that that Dallin H. Oaks is a man called of God. I believe that he is. I believe that he he can speak for the Lord and will lead us in his time. And there are a lot of great people and leaders in other places and other religions that can lead us and are also, you know, inspired of God. But I believe that that Dallin H. Oaks is the one who has the full priesthood authority to lead us today, um, to lead his church in particular, um, and lead other people to Jesus Christ to make covenants with him. I know that through priesthood power that we can have miracles in our lives, that there are people on this side of the veil, prophets, seers, and revelators, there are people on the other side of the veil helping us in our own lives and bringing miracles into our lives. And I hope and pray that we can all feel that each and every day, and um, that it comes because of Jesus Christ and because of our Heavenly Father's love. And I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ.

unknown 38:04

Amen.